A blog by Elim International Missions Director Paul Hudson

Navigation

Post navigation

Who are you overwhelmed by?

Acts 19:3 So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?” “John’s baptism,” they replied.

The Jews had been using baptism as a cleansing ritual for some time. John the Baptist in his role as the forerunner to Christ adopted this as a means of preparation to receive the Messiah. It soon became known as ‘John’s baptism’ and he had gathered disciples who were obviously still around long after his death. The ones Paul encountered as he entered Ephesus had become disciples of Christ but had not received the Holy Spirit.

Theirs was a baptism of man.

Submerged and overwhelmed by the ministry of man.

This is still available today. There are still well-intentioned John the Baptists today. They point to Jesus but their followers sometimes fall into the trap of pointing to them and not HIM.

Churches can be identified by such branding. “That’s a x church” describing perhaps its worship style or ministry/community approach. There’s nothing wrong with this obviously. But sometimes it all gets a bit much and we forget it is Jesus’ Church and the brand is man.

Promoters of Christian events in order to attract the crowds are faced with running out of superlatives to get the much needed ticket sales. Jesus is awesome, powerful and supernatural, it is good to remind ourselves of this.

Are you marked by man or by HIM?

These men were disciples of Christ but their identification was that of John. Paul was soon to make sure this was changed.